InfrabelExpert Approach’ for configuring SAP EAM

Infrabel is the infrastructure manager of Belgium’s railway network. As the parties responsible for Belgium’s railway network, some 12,500 employees, day in and day out, provide for the optimal operation of the materiel, such as the tracks, the aerial contact lines, switches, signals and level crossings.

The Task Infrabel wanted to further develop its organization from maintenance management towards asset management. A professionalization initiative with ISO 55000 as its basis. The Smarter-M program was created to help the organization achieve this mission. The objective of this program was to review the maintenance processes and to implement SAPPM to replace a variety of home-made IT tools with a single common EAM tool. Infrabel approached Mainnovation for support during this transition.

The Approach Work began on elaborating the Infrabel Asset Management Model, which is based on Mainnovation’s VDM Model supplemented by UIC (International Union of Railways) input. This model served as the framework for defining various optimization projects related to the maintenance processes. In addition, Mainnovation contributed to many EAM configuration issues and EAM sub-projects: • Advice for creating a uniform asset structure for all technical specialties. • Support for the data migration, cleaning and cleansing for the pilot districts. • The supply of a SAP Architect to help make the strategic choices required to configure SAP EAM for the Signaling Devices department. • The development of a strategy for mobile EAM applications. • The development of a uniform long-term investment approach for the various technical specialties.

Mainnovation’s Added Value During the professionalization, Infrabel made use of Mainnovation’s VDM Model for its asset management. This helped accelerate the improvement project by integrating industry best practices. For example, in creating the asset structure and configuring SAP EAM. In addition, the project progressed quickly by making use of the Mainnovation Process Map for infrastructure enterprises.The use of these two components together form part of the ‘Expert Approach’ for configuring SAP EAM.